Stamford attorney trying to stop Netflix from showing...

1of9Attorney Stephan E. Seeger poses in his law office in Stamford, Conn. Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. Seeger, who represents Michael Skakel for the accused 1975 murder of Greenwich teenager Martha Moxley, is set to settle a slander lawsuit against television host Nancy Grace. In a stipulation of settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford Wednesday, Seeger agreed to drop his case against the HLN pundit and fellow legal commentator Beth Karas for comments they made in a 2012 broadcast about DNA evidence near the scene of the crime.Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Tyler Sizemore

4of9Jonathan Catchings, 24, of Stamford, with his lawyer Stephan Seegerduring Catchings’ June 2011 arraignment at state Superior Court in Stamford for the shooting death of Raymond “Tank” Hayward, also of Stamford.Photo: David Ames / ST

5of9Darien High School student Brian Minicus, right, appears with his attorney Stephan Seeger Wednesday December 6, 2017, in Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. Two Darien teens were charged with the assault of a New Canaan minor. Brian Minicus, 18, and Jack Joyce, 18, turned themselves into New Canaan police on the night before the Turkey Bowl football game between Darien and New Canaan. Joyce was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer and Minicus was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree unlawful restraint after the two were allegedly involved in an altercation where a New Canaan teen was beaten up.Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media

6of9Dayron Wills, 25, during his sentencing hearing inside Stamford Superior Court in Stamford, Conn. on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Wills pleaded guilty last year to four counts of assault for the 2014 shooting in Columbus Park and was sentenced to 13 years plus an additional five years probation. Also pictured is Wills' attorney Stephan Seeger.Photo: Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

7of9Michael Skakel, with his attorney Stephan Seeger, not pictured, arrives at the Stamford Superior Court in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Seeger said, âÄúWe filed some motions, a motion to suppress and a motion for the return of seized property.âÄùPhoto: Jason Rearick / Jason Rearick

8of9TOPSHOT - US actress Meryl Streep arrives for the screening of the film "The Laundromat" on September 1, 2019 presented in competition during the 76th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP)VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: VINCENZO PINTO / AFP/Getty Images

STAMFORD — Local attorney Stephan Seeger is suing Netflix on behalf of two Panamanian lawyers who he says have been libeled in a soon-to-be released film called “The Laundromat.”

Seeger, a well-known criminal defense attorney in Stamford, charges that “The Laundromat” portrays his attorney clients, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, whose confidential files were released as part of the Panama Papers leak, as ruthless, uncaring lawyers who were involved in money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and other criminal conduct.

Seeger is trying to stop the film’s release by the streaming powerhouse Friday. There seems to be no doubt looking at the movie trailer, Seeger said, that the filmmakers have relished the chance to lampoon Mossak and Fonseca on film, but the question remains — although not in Seeger’s mind — as to whether or not they deserve it.

A message sent to Netflix for comment was not immediately returned.

The star-studded cast includes Academy Award-winner Gary Oldman, who plays Mossack, and Antonio Banderas, who plays Fonseca. Both attorneys’ real names are used in the film. Also, three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep portrays a woman who just lost her husband on a boat tour and accuses the two attorneys of benefiting from the deaths of those killed in the same incident.

The movie trailer begins by saying the movie is “based on some real (expletive deleted).”

In the complaint, Seeger said in a subsequent scene Oldman and Banderas are dressed in flamboyant gold-colored suits and bow ties, smiling in a flashy nightclub casino.

“The viewer quickly learns that Mossack and Fonseca are villains profiting from the deaths of 20 people killed in the small town boat tour, as the lawyer chimes in stating, ‘They are getting away with murder,’” the suit says.

“My clients are believers in the right of freedom of expression and they don’t take issue with legitimate and informed opinion expressed by Netflix or anyone else in any medium,” Seeger said Wednesday, speaking from Panama. “But they do take great umbrage at being falsely accused of crimes they did not commit.”

Seeger said he has not calculated civil damages, which he said will take a long time to do.

“Right now we are not focused on damages. We are focused on preserving their civil liberties,” said Seeger, who is also representing Mossack and Fonseca as part of a FBI investigation in the Southern District of New York.

The movie has already been shown at the Venice and Toronto film festivals.

Seeger said the anticipated release date corresponds with times when Mossack and Fonseca will be defending criminal charges against them in Panama.

Moreover, the charges against the defendants were instituted notitia criminis — merely because the news and media alleged or implied that the plaintiffs were engaged in criminal activity, the suit said. And the implications of their conduct that arise in the film will likely spur Panamanian prosecutors to investigate any criminal accusations revealed by the film, Seeger said in his suit.

As a result, on behalf of Mossack and Fonseca, Seeger asked on Monday for a temporary restraining order to keep Netflix from releasing the film as planned on grounds of false light invasion of privacy, libel and trademark infringement.

“The defamatory representations made about Plaintiffs’ involvement in crime and unethical behavior, along with the disparaging manner in which the Plaintiffs and their protected logos are portrayed, stands to affect current proceedings against them in Panama and to pollute a potential jury pool in a U.S. criminal prosecution,” the suit said. “Ultimately, at the hands of Netflix, the Plaintiffs unwarrantedly solidify a global finance role as poster children for money laundering and tax evasion, with a logo that Netflix transforms into one that is synonymous with the same.”

I’m a Connecticut native and a Cal graduate with a degree in Mass Communications. I got my start in newspaper writing at Orange Coast College in Southern California where I became editor of the school weekly, The Coast Pilot. After getting my degree, I began writing for the Marin Independent Journal before moving back to Connecticut in 2001 and finding a reporting job with The Advocate. I love wooden boats and 454-cubic inch engines that power them.